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How to keep your Windows 8 laptop connected in sleep mode

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Keeping your emails up-to-date can prove challenging as your email client cannot connect to the Internet while your computer is in standby or sleep mode. This means every morning when you open your Windows 8 laptop, you must wait until all your emails, news, social networks are downloaded.

One way to solve the problem is to open the laptop regularly at short intervals and download a few new emails each time. This way you will not face a situation where hordes of your emails are being downloaded at one instance. However, there’s one problem: your laptop’s battery will drain very quickly if you open it at regular short intervals.

Many companies have been, for quite some time now, working hard to find a solution to this problem, but it is Intel that has come up with a novel innovation that may well end this issue once and for all.

With Intel’s latest Smart Connect Technology, users can stay current with their emails, social networks, and more. While your laptop is asleep or in standby, this technology periodically wakes your laptop to allow open applications to receive data from the Internet.

The two most notable features of Smart Connect Technology are:

  • It allows you to manually set the frequency with which it checks for update
  • It automatically reduces the update frequency, if you have not set any, when the battery is running low

Laptops, invariably, lose their battery capacity over time. Smart Connect Technology is a great way of staying current without using much battery power. Some other ways through which you can improve your laptop’s battery life are:

  • Adjust screen’s brightness – A bright laptop can guzzle a lot of battery power. Therefore, you are better off keeping the brightness as low as possible. Additionally, turn off keyboard backlighting, if present.
  • Remove any unused external device – Plugged-in external devices constantly draw power from the connected laptop. You are recommended to remove any attached device after use.
  • Use a laptop cooler – Overheating can cause your battery life to drain more quickly. To prevent this, use a laptop cooler.
  • Defrag regularly – The faster your laptop’s hard drive works the longer its battery will last. The most effective way to improve your hard drive’s performance is to defrag it on a regular basis.

Regular defragmentation not only improves your laptop’s battery life, but it also improves your laptop’s overall performance. Other tips for improving your laptop’s performance include: performing regular disk cleanup, removing unwanted startup programs, and using a reliable and effective pc optimization tool.

Top 3 Windows 8 laptops of 2013

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Want to buy a Windows 8 laptop, but not sure about which laptop is best for you?

Consumers are spoiled for choice when it comes to buying a Windows laptop. To help you in your purchase, we provide a brief review of the top 3 Windows laptops of 2013.

Samsung Series 7 Chronos

The Apple MacBook Pro lookalike, Samsung Series 7 Chronos is packed with several features, the most notable being impressive battery life. The laptop we tested gave us about 7 hours of streaming video over wireless Internet connection.

However, unlike the original Series 7 Chronos, which was powered by Intel Core i7 processor, this laptop runs on i5. When solely judged on performance, the new Series 7 Chronos is not as impressive as its predecessor. The result, however, is hardly surprising because the latest Series 7 Chronos is substantially cheaper than the original Series 7 laptop. That said, the laptop has enough power to easily handle basic tasks like running office software and video- or photo- editing.

The screen has a matt finish, so you don’t have to worry much about reflection and glare. Good as this laptop’s screen is, it is not touch-sensitive. So if you are smitten by Windows 8 Metro interface, this laptop is not the one you would want to bring home.

Samsung Series 7 Chronos’ sleek body, impeccable looks, and decent performance makes it an ideal laptop for those who want a great-looking, non-touch Windows 8 laptop for everyday use.

Dell Inspiron 15R-5521

Dell Inspiron 15R-5521 is marketed as a competitively-priced, decent-looking all round performer. And, we believe, Dell has certainly got it right with this laptop.

Available in different colors, Inspiron 15R-5521 is a budget laptop with looks that may put many expensive laptops to shame. Although its case is plastic, it doesn’t feel or look cheap.

The laptop comes with a choice of Intel i3 and i5. Naturally, the one with dual core i5 delivers a superior performance and costs more. It handles office applications and web browsing with utmost ease and delivers decent performance when subjected to video-editing or other more demanding tasks.

Inspiron’s battery life is most impressive, and can keep going for almost the whole day when using only office applications.

To sum it up, in its price range, Dell Inspiron 15R-5521 reigns supreme and is on a par with, if not better than, some expensive laptops.

To update Dell Drivers, click here >>
To fix Dell Audio Drivers, click here >>

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch

ThinkPad X1 Carbon has it all—stylish design, solid performance, and quality built.

The design, while minimalist, or perhaps because of it, is outstanding. ThinkPad X1 Carbon is all black except for some red highlights. It is as good lid closed as it is with it open. Mainly constructed of carbon fire, the ThinkPad is, and feels, premium and stylish.

When it comes to performance, the Carbon is second to none and is available with both Intel i5 and Intel i7 processor. It performs all everyday functions like streaming video over WiFi or running office applications with ease.

All in all, ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a perfect laptop for those who want both great looks and superior performance.

On a different note, irrespective of which laptop you buy, it is extremely important that you protect it against the Internet Security Threats. The best way to do so is by using a reliable antivirus tool.

Fix Sound Errors: Why you need the latest C-Media drivers

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You are likely to experience some audio problem when a C-Media driver error occurs. Sometimes, these driver errors may also cause your computer to freeze. Here we will discuss the two most common C-Media driver errors and their solutions.

Error 1: Your Windows computer crashes abruptly. When you check the error report, it points towards some error in cm uda.sys

To resolve the issue, update your C-Media audio driver. You can update drivers manually or automatically. Both methods are discussed below.

Updating C-Media audio drivers manually

  • Click the Windows icon in the taskbar
  • Click Control Panel to open its corresponding window
  • Locate and click Device Manager
  • Locate and double-click the installed C-Media hardware device to access its properties dialog box
  • Click the Driver tab
  • Click the Update Driver button
  • Click Search automatically for updated driver software, and follow the onscreen instructions

If the listed feature is unable to procure the latest C-Media audio driver, we recommend you download and install the latest driver manually from C-Media’s official website.

Updating C-Media audio driver automatically

The easiest and fastest way of updating a C-Media audio driver or any driver, for that matter, is by using an advanced and fast driver update tool. Invest in a reliable driver update tool to get the latest device drivers at the click of a mouse.

Error 2: Your Windows computer is not producing any audio and the volume tab is not active in the Sound and Audio Device Properties window. The error code generated in Device Manager is “Code 10 (The Device Cannot Start)”.

This error, in most cases, occurs when C-Media device driver is not installed correctly or when the installed driver is corrupt. You can resolve the error by reinstalling your C-Media driver or by installing the latest C-Media device driver.

To reinstall a C-Media device driver, perform the following steps:

  • Open Device Manager
  • Locate and double-click your C-Media device
  • Click the Driver tab
  • Click the Uninstall button, and follow the onscreen instructions
  • Close the device properties dialog box
  • Click the Action menu in the Device Manager window, and then click Scan for Hardware changes and follow the onscreen instructions

If the error persists even after you’ve completed these steps, you will need to download and install the latest C-Media device driver. This, as mentioned before, you can do manually or automatically, with the latter option often being more reliable, effective, and faster.